South East Asia: mission partners in transition

Please pray for B and M and their children as they prepare to relocate within the region for the second time in the space of a few years. Pray for each member of the family to know God as their rock during this time of change, and for them to quickly settle and find new friends in their new location.  

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Philippines: syntropic farming

Mission partners Eric and Sandra Read are leading the way in syntropic (regenerative and sustainable) farming, using their farm in the Philippines to demonstrate syntropic farming methods and encouraging people of all ages to care for creation.

Pray for a meeting taking place next month where local farmers will gather to discuss syntropic farming methods – pray for people to be engaged and to see the value of these methods.

Pray for a few farmers to come forward to train and work with Eric and Sandra. Please also pray for a swift and full recovery for Sandra, who injured her knee in March and has not fully recovered yet.

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Philippines: loss of homes in fire

Mission partner Tim Lee, working to help children and families living in poverty in Manila through Jigsaw Kids’ Ministries, asks for prayer for the 24 households who lost their homes in a recent fire in Quezon city where Jigsaw has served for many years. Please pray that their homes may be rebuilt, losses restored, and that they would find peace, security, and the love and strength of Jesus. Pray for all the children, young people and families connected with Jigsaw – that in the midst of challenges they would know Jesus as Lord and Saviour, and that many more people would come to faith through his love.

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Thailand: strengthening families

Please pray for mission partners Elise and Jon Fletcher, based in Bangkok and their involvement with the ‘ethical engagement campaign’, which educates international schools in Thailand on the harms of institutionalised care for children and encourages engagement with family strengthening work. Pray for a great turnout at the launch event on 22 May and for Jon as he coordinates the event. Pray that there will be a great interest and uptake from schools. 

Please also pray that Jon’s three-month visa, due for renewal this month, is approved.

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Video transcript

Hello everyone and welcome to Hope from the Edges. I’m Andy Roberts, CEO for CMS.

In the next few minutes, we’ll bring you inspiring news from three edges in our world. Stories that you are making possible through your gifts and prayers.

First, we will go to South East Asia for the story of an inspiring woman who is reaching her village with the love of Jesus.

From there we’ll go to Paraguay. And celebrate one mission partner’s remarkable 44 years of service and a linguistic legacy that will live on for generations to come.

Finally, we’ll go to Tanzania and zoom in on places where it’s tough to be a Christian, and we’ll meet our newest mission partners who are preparing to serve there.

First, meet Grace, whose name we’ve changed for security reasons.

Grace grew up in a remote village in a jungle area of South East Asia. When she was seven years old, Grace’s grandfather told her about Jesus. At age 14, Grace left school to help her family farm rice. A few years later, she signed on with a housekeeping agency and went to Malaysia to work for a family there. Though the housekeeping agency tried to take Grace’s Bible away from her, the family she worked for fought for her to keep it.

Over the next few years, she grew in her faith, through praying and reading her precious Bible. After several years of working in Malaysia, Grace felt the Lord telling her to return to her country for something new.

Back in her village, she worked odd jobs for the next two years, and looked for God’s purpose in bringing her back home. Grace got involved in her local church, and she realised how deeply the people in her district needed Jesus. She began praying that God would use her.

In 2025, church leaders offered her training to help her become more effective in her ministry. This is how Grace met Patrick, whose name we’ve also changed for security reasons. Patrick is an Asia-CMS partner who works with a local institute, training local mission workers and rural church leaders in discipleship, evangelism, and church planting.

Following her training, Grace returned to her village. Today, Grace is a pastor and is training 25 leaders in her church for mission and ministry. She also travels to other villages to share the good news of Jesus and work with local children and young people.

God is using CMS partners in Asia to transform vast numbers of lives across the region.

Now let’s go to the Chaco region of Paraguay where mission partner Tim Curtis is now retiring after an amazing 44 years in mission among Indigenous peoples.

Tim has spent 44 years helping translate the Bible into the Énxet languages and supporting the Indigenous Énxet people to interact with God’s Word. Tim first went to Paraguay in the early 1980s, teaching at Indigenous and Government schools.

He soon became involved in Bible translation, supporting a team of three indigenous translators to revise the Southern Énxet New Testament and translate the Old Testament from scratch. After many years’ hard work, the full Southern Énxet Bible was launched in 2016. In Tim’s words, “from start to finish it was surprising, even miraculous, how different people from different organisations, churches and institutions came together for the translation.”

In the years that followed, Tim and others worked to help people engage with the word through producing an audio version of the Southern Énxet Bible and dubbing the Jesus film into the language.

A related language group, the Northern Enlhet, also needed help translating the Bible into their language. In 2018, Tim joined their Bible translation team part-time as a consultant and continues support them from the UK even now. Northern Enlhet speakers hope to celebrate the completion of the Bible in their language in the late 2020s.

We’re so thankful for Tim’s hard work and the invaluable linguistic legacy that will live on among Indigenous peoples in Paraguay, empowering them for generations to come.

Now it’s my great pleasure and privilege to introduce to you our newly selected mission partners, Dave and Tricia Rollett, preparing to swap their life in the East Midlands for East Africa.

We believe God is calling Dave and Tricia’s family to Tanzania to support Christians who are in a minority to grow in their faith and work together to be a loving witness to their neighbours of other faiths.

They are hoping to move to Zanzibar this August so that they can get stuck into discipleship, partnership building and more as quickly as possible. We have faith that God will provide the money for them to move in this short time frame.

Could God be calling you to support the mission work they’ll be involved in? Dave and Tricia are featured partners in CMS’s Global Edge Church programme. This means if you sign up to support them, you’ll also be supporting other mission partners and local partners who are quipping and encouraging where followers of Jesus are in a minority. Go to churchmissionsociety.org/rollett to find out more.

And be sure to check the Trek for Tanzania sponsored challenge Dave will be doing, walking the length of Zanzibar to raise support.

Lastly, May is our recruitment month. Could God be calling you to go to the edges with CMS globally or locally? Go to churchmissionsociety.org/serve to discover more about how you could go to the edges with CMS.

Well, thank you all for joining me for these stories from the edges and for your prayerful support which makes them possible.

Please share this video with your church, small group or anyone you think could use some fuel for their faith.

Until next time, we are so grateful for your gifts and prayers as together we go:

With Jesus
With each other
To the edges

ENDS

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Based in Southeast Asia, co-mission partner Patrick* works with a local institute that provides training for local mission workers and rural church leaders on topics like discipleship, evangelism, and church planting.

by Asia-CMS

In 2025, Patrick worked with many inspiring individuals, including a woman named Pastor Grace.* She was sent to the institute Patrick works at to attend some training modules, which is how Patrick learnt about Grace’s testimony.

She first learned about Jesus at the age of seven from her grandfather. At 13, Grace was unfortunately hit by a car in an accident that witnesses said was un-survivable. Yet, she walked away with minor injuries, describing a man in a white robe protecting her.

Growing up in a remote, jungle village, Grace faced hardship. She dropped out of school at 14 to help her family farm rice and a few years later, she went to Malaysia to work as a housekeeper. Before leaving, she prayed specifically to be placed with a family of exactly four members.

“I had no control over the agency, but I had control over my prayer,” she shares.

Grace was assigned to a household of that exact number and miraculously, despite the agency she worked for trying to ban her Bible, the Christian family she was placed with intervened, allowing her to keep it!

She worked in Malaysia for several years, constantly growing her faith through reading and prayer. After a while, Grace felt the Lord telling her to return to her country for a new plan. She settled back in her village and attempted to work odd jobs wherever she could find them.

“For the next two years, Grace grew very unsure of her next move. She spent a lot of time questioning what God’s plan for her was and why she had to come back home,” shares Patrick.

It was only when Grace got involved with ministries at her small local church that she understood the reason for her return. She realised how deeply the people in her district needed Jesus and began praying that God would use her!

After spending many months serving among her local community, Grace’s superiors recognised her potential and sent her to Patrick’s training institute, so she would be better equipped to lead others who wanted to follow in her footsteps.

As of today, Grace is now a pastor who is training 25 leaders in her church. Together with her team, she travels to surrounding villages to evangelise and run programmes that benefit the children and youth of those areas.

*Names changed to protect privacy

Pray together

Asia-CMS ask our prayers for:

• safety and logistics for ministry travel and events – for leaders and trainers traveling long distances to training centres, especially given difficult or flooded road conditions
• protection and provision for trainers and leaders – for God’s protection and financial provision for the trainers and leaders who are serving voluntarily by faith with minimal stipends.
• effectiveness and impact of Patrick’s institute – that every training session will be conducted under the Lord’s authority and anointing, and that all current students will finish strong. Pray for God to send new students who have a passion and vision for missions.

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South East Asia: a particularly stressful time

Pray for peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4:7) for A and L, CMS partners supporting people to live in freedom from addiction (A) and working with and for children with special educational needs (L). As L does her best to provide inclusive practices for a neurodivergent student amid hostility from other class parents and leaders, pray for God’s blessing on her efforts and for God to shield her and the student from negative attitudes. Pray for a full and uncomplicated recovery for A, who has shingles and has been in a lot of pain.

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South East Asia: transition

Mission partners A and L support people to live in freedom from addiction (A) and champion the cause of children with special needs (L). Please pray for them and their children as they navigate a time of transition – for peace in the waiting and for discernment in what God has for them next.

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Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Indonesia: rebuilding after floods

Pray for all those who have been affected by recent flooding in Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Indonesia. Pray for comfort for those who are mourning the loss of family members, homes, possessions and stability. Pray for people as they try to move forward and rebuild following the flooding.

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South East Asia: ceasefire

A Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire was agreed at the end of December, ending weeks of border clashes that forced nearly one million people from their homes. Praise God that the ceasefire is still in place. Please pray for lasting peace between the two countries and for civilians to be able to safely return to their homes.

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Thailand: Keeping Families Together

At the end of January, partners Elise and Jon Fletcher began a Keeping Families Together programme with 12 families in the Khlong Toei slum community in Bangkok where they live and work. Part of Elise and Jon’s role of sharing Jesus’ love with people through both presence and project-based support, the programme aims to give families practical tools to help them stay living together despite the pressures of living in the slum. Give thanks for these 12 families and pray for Elise and Jon and case workers as they come alongside them and share Jesus’ love.

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Laos: wheelchair project

A wheelchair project is changing the lives of disabled people, and their families, in Laos, Asia. The project imports wheelchairs into the country giving new opportunities for people. Please pray for the provision of funding, resources and transport for the project to continue. And praise God for the positive start the project has had. Ask him to bless those who are receiving the wheelchairs with access to new opportunities and hopes for their future.   

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